Liu headlines stellar field for China's biggest meet

Olympic champion Liu Xiang may have narrowly missed out on a gold medal at the World Championships in Helsinki, but he gets a chance to turn the tables on his rivals in his home town when China stages its biggest and most important meeting in Shanghai next month.

Liu had to settle for silver in Helsinki behind Frenchman Ladji Doucoure in the men's 110 metres hurdles final, but the 22-year-old mainlander can redeem himself at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix on September 17.

China's first men's track and field Olympic champion last year in Athens, Liu will be among the big-names, who will be competing in the one-day meet, which will be held at the 45,000-seat Shanghai Stadium and is expected to beamed live to millions of viewers from all over the world through 25 international TV networks.

The athletics meet is one of three major international sporting events scheduled during autumn in Shanghai. The city will also host one leg of the Formula One championship in October as well as the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Masters Cup in November.

'We have signed all the top athletes. A total of 14 disciplines will be competed and 110 foreign athletes plus 28 Chinese athletes will compete in our meet,' said Mary Gu, managing director of Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, who was in Hong Kong yesterday as part of a delegation to promote the event.

'Apart from Liu and Doucoure competing in Shanghai, [four-time world champion] Allen Johnson [of the US] and Dominique Arnold [US] will also compete in the same race. Everybody wants to see Liu in action and the men's hurdles final will be the highlight of the meet, but of course it's not the only interesting event to be contested in Shanghai,' she said.